Cardan shaft structure with tightness adjustable functions

ABSTRACT

A cardan shaft structure with tightness adjustable functions is disclosed, where it has a through-hole passing through spheres located at both ends of the cardan shaft body, additionally there is a taper socket respectively installed into the opening end of each sphere, and thereat a bolt is inserted into both the sphere and the body, which will be fixed and locked together in conjunction with a nut afterwards, and by the time while the said sphere is being pushed against (or unagainst) inner wall of such clamping component by means of tightening (or loosing) such bolt so as to make said sphere either expand (or recover) therefrom, and thus in this way the angle displacement of clamping component will become adjustable accordingly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of a universaljoint technology, which is used for the purpose of angle adjustment.

2. The Prior Arts

In light of many different situations, it usually needs a universaljoint device to solve the proem of dead angles on some actions.

According to the fifth diagram, it shows a known universal jointstructure, which has a sphere head A located internally of a body, wheresaid sphere head A has a quadrant orifice A1 penetrating through itsboth ends, and such sphere head A is being linked to the body by aspline shaft B which is penetrating through such quadrant orifice A1; inaddition, there are bearing plate C and spring D installed forconnecting inner area in-between the sphere head A and body, and hencethe frictional action force will be generated further in-between bearingplate C and sphere head A by the time while spring D is pushing againstbearing plate C; therefore, when it is combined with adjusting the anglefor ferrule A2 of such sphere head, then it will be fixed and lockedautomatically if the bearing plate C is pushing against the sphere headA. However, after all there is a limitation on action force generated bythe spring, even thought the ferrule has already been locked at aparticular angle, its adjusted angle would be very easy to be changed ifit is effected by the other external action force, and the turning angleof such sphere is also directly subjected to the taper degree of saidquadrant orifice. In other words, the conventional universal jointstructure shown in the fifth diagram is suitable only for the micro toolor instrument requiring a minimal action force with a small degreeadjustable range.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary objective of the present invention is to solve the problem ofsmaller degree adjustable range as well as imperfect fixed force afteradjustment for traditional cardan shaft structure.

The present invention is achieving the above object by means of thefollowing technology:

The cardan shaft structure with tightness adjustable functions inaccordance with the present invention mainly comprises a body, twospheres, a bolt and a nut; wherein said two spheres are coupled withboth ends of said body respectively, in which, one sphere is combinedwith the body and acting as a whole, and either the other sphere is thenbeing separated out of the body; or instead both spheres are allcombined with the body and acting as a whole; the said body has athrough-hole penetrating through both spheres at its both ends, whereinthere are a plurality of grooves equipped into side walls of said twospheres respectively which is capable to separate the said sphere intoseveral portions equally, in addition, there are tapered socket portionequipped at opening ends of each sphere, therefore while inserting abolt into central hole of such sphere which is separated from the body,and then locking it with a nut from the position of another sphere, andby this way the said both spheres will be fixed and locked by theclamping plate of clamping component, additionally, both spheres of suchcardan shaft will be expanded or recovered by turning the head of suchbolt, and in this way the inner wall of said clamping plate will pushedagainst while the sphere is being expanded and otherwise the angledegree of such cardan shaft is adjustable by turning the clampingcomponent while inner wall of such clamping plate is being loosened andunagainst the sphere at all

If comparing with traditional universal joint device, the presentinvention is primarily utilizing a cardan shaft structure, combiningwith the adjustable function in-between the bolt and nut so as to makethe sphere expand or recover to its original condition, in order toachieve a angle displacement on moving component consequently; and byusing this simple structure it has not only resolved the problem ofsmaller degree adjustable range as well as imperfect adjustment fortraditional universal joint but also achieved the object in reducingmaintenance cost and increasing the convenience at the same time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art byreading the following detailed description of a preferred embodimentthereof, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of preferred embodiment of the cardan shaftstructure with tightness adjustable functions in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of preferred embodiment of the cardanshaft structure with tightness adjustable functions in accordance withthe present invention, which is under disassembled condition;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of preferred embodiment of the cardanshaft structure with tightness adjustable functions in accordance withthe present invention, which is under assembled condition;

FIG. 4 is a schematic assembly view of preferred embodiment of thecardan shaft structure with tightness adjustable functions in accordancewith the present invention, wherein the clamping component is fixed byexpanded dual spheres while the bolt is being locked; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of known cardan shaft structure, whichis under assembled condition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to both FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, it is an exploded view of thepreferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the presentinvention comprising a body 1, having each sphere 2, 12 located at bothits ends respectively, in which one of the sphere 12 is being fixed atone end of said body 1, and the other sphere 2 is then being separatedfrom the said body 1; further the said body 1 has a through-hole 11located at its center portion, penetrating through sphere 12, and thereare a plurality of grooves 14 equipped at side wall of sphere 12, whichare penetrating through the said central hole 11 and both its ends aswell, in addition, there is a socket portion 15 equipped at central holeof end of the sphere 12 (as shown on FIG. 2). At another end of body 1,there is a bumping 13, where said bumping 13 can be either a squareshape or multilateral shape. There is a complementary recess portion 22,complementally to said bumping 13, located at one end of the separatedsphere 2, in such a way that both bumping 13 and recess portion 22 isable to be coupled together mutually therefrom; where both said bumping13 and said recess portion 22 are available in either square shape orany multilateral shape accordingly. A plurality of grooves 22 areequipped at side wall of sphere 2, which is capable of penetratingthrough its central hole and another end, further it has consisted of asocket portion 21 at inner area of such central hole at the said end.While inserting a bolt 3 sequentially through the central hole of sphere2, body 1 and sphere 12, so as to make the head of bolt installed intosocket portion 21, and the external threads at another end of the bolt 3is being coupled with a nut 4, which have made such nut 4 insert intosocket portion 15 of the said sphere 12. Please refer to the FIG. 3 forviewing the assembled construction.

Additionally, there is another way to utilize the preferred embodimentof the present invention and act as a whole piece, by combining bothspheres 2, 12 and body 1, or connecting sphere 2, which is separatedfrom body 1 as described in previous paragraph, together with body bywelding method thereat.

In order to obtain a smooth appearance of sphere 2 and 12, the preferredembodiment of the present invention has, therefore, used tack bolt tocombine both spheres 2,12 and body 1, so as to insert the head of boltcompletely into socket portion 21 of sphere 2. One end of said nut 4 isin a taper shape which is similar to the head of bolt 3, thus the nut 4will be easily inserted into socket portion 15 of sphere 2 after lockingand coupling nut 4 with bolt 3.

With reference to the FIG. 4, which is shown the using status for thepreferred embodiment of the present invention. Two spheres 2, 12 of thepresent invention are used as a fastener, working together with clampingcomponent 5; where the said clamping component 5 is available to includetwo clamping plates 51, responding to curved surface of sphere 2, 12, soas to have either sphere 2 or 12 being wrapped up by these two clampingplates 51, which will be coupled together by a screw (not shown in thefigure) afterwards, in order that these sphere 2, 12 could be held intoa circular space created by these two clamping plates 51; wherein athrough-hole 52 is preserved at one side of one clamping component 5, inorder to turn the bolt 3 successfully resulted from inserting ascrewdriver, for instance, or any other tool into such through-hole 52.When bolt 3 is being locked tightly, due to the head of bolt is closingto nut 4 respectively, therefore the head of bolt and nut 4 will pressagainst socket portion 21, 15 of the said sphere 2, 12 synchronously,and hence force sphere 2, 12 to expand outwardly against the inner wallof said clamping plate 51, resulting in both sphere 2, 12 will be ableto be fixed onto the clamping plate 51, and in this way the clampingcomponent is unable to be turned at all. Whereas, if loosing the bolt 3,then head of bolt is being separated to opposite direction from nut 4,therefore pressure force at the socket portion of sphere will bereleased at once, and meanwhile both spheres 2, 12 are returning totheir original shape by means of the spring force, where at this moment,clamping force in-between both spheres and clamping plate 51 has no moreexisted, and under this circumstance, the angle degree of the saidclamping component 5 will become adjustable accordingly.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to thepreferred embodiment thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the artthat a variety of modifications and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention which is intended tobe defined by the appended claims.

1. A cardan shaft structure with tightness adjustable functions,comprising: a body, having each sphere located at its both endsrespectively, in addition, the said body has a central hole which ispenetrating through its both ends and the said two spheres as well,wherein there are a plurality of grooves equipped into side walls ofsaid two spheres respectively which is capable of penetrating throughthe central holes and mutual opening ends, and the central holes of saidmutual opening ends consist of tapered socket portion; a bolt,penetrating through the central hole of said body; and a nut, which iscapable of being locked with the said bolt from the end of anothersphere.
 2. The cardan shaft structure with tightness adjustablefunctions as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sphere is separated intoseveral portions equally by a plurality of said grooves.
 3. The cardanshaft structure with tightness adjustable functions as claimed in claim1, wherein one sphere is combined with said body so as to act as awhole, and therefore the other sphere has been separated out of saidbody consequently.
 4. The cardan shaft structure with tightnessadjustable functions as claimed in claim 3, wherein there aremultilateral bumping located at ends of said body, consisting of acomplementary recess portion complementally to said multilateral bumpingof the other sphere separated from the said body, more over the saidmultilateral bumping is able to be coupled into said recess in orderthat the said body is applicable to be connected together with saidsphere.
 5. The cardan shaft structure with tightness adjustablefunctions as claimed in claim 1, wherein one end of said nut has a taperdegree corresponding to inner area of socket portion of said sphere.